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Jazz Jamboree: overview of festival's history
Jazz Jamboree was always a target for the Soviet authorities who felt
the music was aural poison from depraved Western nations. Performance
reviews then were understandably scathing (if printed at all), but even
in later years critics were not averse to taking a shot at Warsaw's
annual jazz bash.
In the early 1950s, when be bop ruled the hipsters' world, jazz was
forbidden in Poland. Political leaders saw it as the "music of rotten
capitalists," and listening or playing it meant that you sympathized
with communism's biggest enemy, the United States. In those times,
Polish jazz giants of today such as Michal Urbaniak, Adam Makowicz and
Zbigniew Namyslowski could listen to jazz only through Radio Luxembourg
broadcasts, which were often jammed by communist authorities.
But in 1956, three years after Stalin's death, Poland went through a
political thaw: collective farms were abolished, unjustly sentenced
prisoners were released and jazz was legalized. From then on, "the jazz
plague infected young people's minds," as the communist party's daily,
Trybuna Ludu, commented on the first Jazz Jamboree.
Leopold Tyrmand, writer and journalist, named the festival and was its
spiritual father. Tyrmand loved America and all that was American. He
dressed as a beatnik and was known for his trademark colorful socks,
often photographed by reporters. "Lolo," as he was called by his
friends, was the biggest jazz fan in Poland. He claimed that Ella
Fitzgerald's songs were the only thing that allowed him to survive the
war.
The first festival, named simply Jazz `58, was held that September in
Warsaw's Stodola club. Tyrmand came up with the name Jazz Jamboree and
made jazz standard Swanee River the festival's anthem.
Drunken Americans
The Jamboree has received mixed press from the beginning. The first few
festivals were not even mentioned in newspapers or described in only a
few short sentences. Larger articles only started appearing at the end
of the 1960s and early `70s when major stars began arriving in
Poland. During this time many reporters stopped criticizing the music
itself but, to be in tune with the party's ideology, gave bad press to
American performers.
Sztandar Mlodych, then a paper of Poland's Socialist Youth Union (ZSMP),
wrote about Jazz Jamboree `72: "During the opening concert, the drunken
Jimmy Smith [a then-famous jazz organist] kicked the keyboard of the
Hammond organ, evoking but a look of pity on the faces of the few
thousand listeners. I don't know if the Polish Art Agency has spoken
with their foreign contractors about those irresponsible `artists' they
sent us. I wonder whether the American Embassy is going to apologize to
the Polish public for the behavior of their citizen."
In a similar vein, the weekly Kierunki came down rather strongly on free
jazz: "A new avant-garde depth was plumbed by Andrzej Mazurkiewicz's
quartet and their music which could be described as somewhere between
the screech produced by a piece of metal scratching glass and the
howling of an old vacuum cleaner." Luckily, it wasn't all bad news;
Kierunki actually enjoyed Smith's performance.
Even though the biggest American stars appeared at that 1972
festival-Elvin Jones, Charlie Mingus, "Cannonball" Adderley, Cat
Anderson, Ray Brooks and Jimmy Smith - the critics, in homage to
Polish-Russian friendship, devoted most of their attention to third-rate
bands from the Soviet Union, making them appear as first-class stars.
Kierunki praised the Russian Oleg Lundstrem Big Band for "introducing
Russian folk elements to classic swing."
Miles of Smiles for Miles
American performers have always been Jazz Jamboree's strong point.
Nearly all big names from the 1940s, `50s and `60s, appeared in
festivals at the end of the `60s and `70s. In 1960 Stan Getz made
historical appearance with all polish rhythm section. In 1970, the
roster included superstar pianist Dave Brubeck and vibraphonist Dave
Pine. The performers featured in the memorable festival of 1971 would be
enough to man a series of jazz events: Theleonius Monk, Duke Ellington,
Dizzy Gillespie, Ornette Colemann and Art Blakey all made appearances in
Warsaw. Yet Miles Davis always stirred the most excitement among
critics. The press devoted a lot of attention to the terms of the
contract Davis signed for the 1983 festival. In the times when Polish
stores were suffering from a shortage of everything, the maestro of jazz
requested French Evian mineral water, cold dishes (cold cuts, cheese,
salami), Miller beer, crackers, fruit juice, a suite in the Victoria
hotel (two bedrooms and a kitchen) and a Russian Chayka limousine from
the State Security Agency. His performance, of course, was the highlight
of the Jamboree. When leaving the stage, he was bid good-bye by
thousands of fans shouting "We want Miles!" He later asked one of the
organizers, "How come I never performed here before?" On being told that
he was probably too expensive, the trumpeter smiled and said, "I
would've given you a discount, boys."
Polish performances
In the festival's early editions, domestic performers weren't spared
from criticism by Polish reviewers. "Michal Urbaniak ruthlessly killed
the charm of Swanee River-the festival's traditional prelude-by
producing a strange mix of sounds on his electric violin," critic Marian
Butrym wrote in 1972. Jacek Zurek, a well-known critic, was also
merciless that year toward Polishstars such as pianist Krzysztof Komeda,
sax player Zbigniew Namyslowski, and trumpeter Tomasz Stanko. "The
deformed remnants of Komeda's music became a pretext for chaotic and
noisy improvisations which were fed to weary listeners for five hours,
he remarked."
In later years, these sentiments would change. For instance, in 1976
Andrzej Ibis-Wróblewski from Polityka weekly called Stanko and
Namyslowski "original musicians and outstanding, talented composers" in
his "Polish Jazz-An Export Item" article. Wróblewski also praised
Urbaniak and made a bold statement: "We are a jazz power in Europe. We
have dozens of world-renowned bands and soloists."
The Fans
The critics also discussed the festival's public. In 1970, Marian Butrym
claimed that "the magnificent Warsaw public showed a lot of courage by
taking part in marathon concerts which finished long after midnight. The
public can be credited with saving the entire festival, heroically
struggling against the organizers' incompetence." Many journalists were
surprised to discover crowds of young people in the Palace of Culture's
Kongresowa Hall. "At the first concert I was rubbing my eyes in
disbelief-where am I? What is this-rock or jazz? Still, the listeners
are the beat generation, brought up on strong rhythms which, contrary to
what some nagging prophets had claimed, didn't take them in the gutter
but to a room where challenging music is played," Wróblewski wrote in
Zycie Warszawy in 1972.
Overall, though Jazz Jamboree in the past has been tainted by censors,
ripped by spiteful critics and pathetically exploited as a pro-Soviet
tool, it has survived as a long-running and cherished Warsaw
institution. Now, as the Jamboree moves into private hands, perhaps the
outstanding lineups we've seen in the past will only improve. And maybe
the headlines as well.
© Jarek Janas (Warsaw Voice), 1995
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